Ameraucana Breeders Club
The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Breeding => Topic started by: Art Smith on October 16, 2015, 01:18:46 PM
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I promise to stop with these questions. Will the eggs get a darker blue as the hens mature? My girls have just started to lay and their eggs are very light blue.
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Hi Art
You don't need to stop with the questions. :) This is what this forum is here for, so ask away!
I'm not one of the resident experts, but from my experience, I haven't seen pullets' eggs get darker. Of course, there are so many variables that can affect egg color, it's really hard to say definitively if they will or not.
Ok, that's my two cents - now it's time for the experts to jump in! :)
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Art, The egg color of the birds vary with variety and family strain. Probably the best eggs come from the Black Blue, splash and white varieties. I have heard that some of the Silvers and Brown Reds lay a good colored egg too. Buffs on the other hand are still trying to recoup from all the Buff Orp blood that was used to create the color. Somewhere in the middle is probably the Wheatens. I have seen some good colored eggs but not to match the Blacks. So I would agree with Susan that sometimes the egg color of pullets will bounce around a bit for a few weeks, but then settle down to a pretty even color. Then as the season continues, the tinting will probably lighten as the hens/pullets continue to produce.
Here are discussions about egg color but there are many others that have been posted over the years.
http://ameraucana.org/forum/index.php?topic=1476.msg9478#msg9478
http://ameraucana.org/forum/index.php?topic=748.msg4732#msg4732
I am sure that some of the others will jump in with better answers later this weekend.
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From my experience, the eggs will be darkest when they first start laying. As time goes on they will begin to lighten up. When they stop laying for the winter or a molt, it gives their bodies time to recover and replenish. Then, when they start laying again, the eggs will be darker again and gradually lighten up the longer they lay. It's a repeating cycle.
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I think Max's response sums it up pretty well, at least that has been my experience. I think this holds true no matter what variety of Ameraucana they may fall into.
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The way Max explained it is the way my blacks and blues are now. I have three different lines of wheatens, two are like my blacks, the other line start out very light for 3 to 4 eggs but do get a lot better as the year goes on. I have kept this line separate .
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Oh yes Art please don't stop asking questions ,they are good for the mind ????